About 50 locations ('cold spots') where permafrost (Arctic and Antarctic) in situ monitoring has been taking place for many years or where field stations are currently established (through, for example the Canadian ADAPT program) have been identified. These sites have been proposed to WMO Polar Space Task Group as focus areas for future monitoring by satellite data. Seven monitoring transects spanning different permafrost types have been proposed in addition.

Supplement to: Bartsch, Annett; Allard, Michel; Biskaborn, Boris K; Burba, George; Christiansen, Hanne Hvidtfeldt; Duguay, Claude R; Grosse, Guido; Günther, Frank; Heim, Birgit; Högström, Elin; Kääb, Andreas; Keuper, Frida; Lanckman, Jean-Pierre; Lantuit, Hugues; Lauknes, Tom Rune; Leibman, Marina O; Liu, Lin; Morgenstern, Anne; Necsoiu, Marius; Overduin, Pier Paul; Pope, Allen; Sachs, Torsten; Séjourné, Antoine; Streletskiy, Dmitry A; Strozzi, Tazio; Ullmann, Tobias; Ullrich, Matthias S; Vieira, Gonçalo; Widhalm, Barbara (2014): Requirements for monitoring of permafrost in polar regions - A community white paper in response to the WMO Polar Space Task Group (PSTG), Version 4, 2014-10-09. Austrian Polar Research Institute, Vienna, Austria, 20 pp